Ha-Joon Chang has been working hard at providing an alternative to neoliberalism for two decades now, ever since his book Kicking Away the Ladder pointed out that low taxes, free trade and deregulation simply wasn’t the way that most rich countries had developed.

I'm very used to Europeans and Europe-based gurus (the author is South Korean, but he's made his career in the UK, so I'm counting him in) being awful at analysing South America, save the Spaniards and Portuguese because language and historical ties that continue make them closer and more in touch, but it never ceases to bother me how ill-informed their commentary can be sometimes. Well, he already told us that we have limited “mental capacity;” so he gets big brother to”help” us. and had a basic understanding of some economic phenomena such as industrialisation overtaking raw-materials based economies in terms of income and prosperity.Edible Economics was honest, occasionally flawed and surface-level, but ultimately incredibly digestible and often delicious.

As with a Church of England sermon, it’s easy to chuckle at the artless way in which the points are sometimes brought in, – “In a very real sense, isn’t the carrot rather like a patent system? That said, an interesting and creative approach to get more people interested and understand how economics work at a global scale. An enjoyable and easily-readable book, sure to engage anyone curious about the world, and of course, food connoisseurs (although he bends over backwards trying to connect each food to an economic theory, he does chalk it up to a stream-of-consciousness style). Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review Edible Economics in exchange for an honest review.P 130: “ [re climate change, the government decides what you eat] “…changing our eating habits can have a big impact…. I might be past the point in my economics education where beginner-level books aimed at introducing economics to general readers fail to excite me, but this was such a fresh style and take on the subject. I learned a good deal from each chapter and the author manages to entwine complicated concepts with charming stories and various facts. Part One is about overcoming prejudice through using the author's own experience overcoming his aversion to food like okra (I can relate, hate that thing), and the next is about becoming more productive, then the third is about doing better globally; and the fourth and last sections are about living together and thinking of the future. Niestety wstawki o jedzeniu nieszczególnie mi przypadły do gustu, ale inna sprawa, że mi do kulinarnych freaków baaardzo daleko!